BEIJING, March 8 (Xinhua) -- China will consistently pursue peaceful development and stick to a mutually beneficial and win-win opening-up strategy, Premier Li Keqiang reaffirmed in a government work report delivered at an annual National People's Congress session in Beijing on March 5.

Around the advent of the session, Xinhua reporters carried out a series of interviews around the world to sketch out how the world is looking at China's fast development -- asking how to understand its "growing pains" and what China should do to interact with the world as a developing power.

DIALOGUE 1

Xinhua: What does China look like in your eyes? How do you see China's fast development?

As the second largest economy in the world, China's progress is inspiring, Christian Elion, director of Redaction Department of Congo's national website, said.

China respects other countries in bilateral and multilateral contacts, he said. "Chinese friends construct a road linking national capital Brazzaville to the port city of Pointe-Noire facing the Atlantic, while the French colonist did nothing during nearly a century."

Gerd Kaminski, director of the Austrian Institute for China and Southeast Asia research, recalled his first visit to Beijing in 1972, when there were few cars on the streets and shabby flat houses all around.

"There are a large amount of cars and luxurious buildings in Beijing now, China has achieved great results," he said.

Though China has been confronted with some problems in the developing process, such as lagging of environmental protection policies, land and drinking water pollution, its achievements are mainstream, the professor said, and the international community should take a positive view on China's development.

"I personally haven't visited China, but I have many Chinese friends, from journalists to staff of research centers in China," Bassam Abu-Abdullah, director of the Damascus Center for Strategic Studies said.

"China has its economic sway and relations, but it didn't send troops to encroach on any nation, unlike what happened with the United States and the West that want to control and dominate peoples of the region, at least in our areas, by sending troops and establishing military bases to enslave peoples of this region," Abu-Abdullah said.

"China's stance is always based on respecting other nations and non-interference in other countries' affairs," he added.

The economic ties between Syria and China are very close, but could be deepened further, he said, adding, "We don't have experts in Chinese issues and we need to have qualified cadres."

R. J. Taylor, a junior majoring in international relations at Georgetown University in Washington D.C., told Xinhua, "I have a positive view of the Chinese people... I have a course this semester on China's economy."

"I think some people feel China's economic growth has hurt the United States," he explained, but added, "I also think China is like a huge market for American companies. There is a lot of opportunities for American companies."